Treatment of fibrous and textile materials



" Patented Nov.

UNITED STATE- MATERIALS Bruno Rcwald, Hamburg, Germany, assignor, by

mesne assignments, to pany, Cleveland, Ohio, a

American Lecithin Comcorporation of Ohio No Drawing. Application October- 5, 1932, Serial No. 636,422. In Germany January 11, 1930 Claims.

This application is in part a continuation of my copending application Ser. No. 459,842, filed June 7, 1930.

The present invention concerns the treatment of fibrous textile materials of all kinds both in the loose form and when woven into fabrics and the like.

It has been found that the addition of phosphatides, more particularly of vegetable. lecithin such as may be obtained in considerable quantitles from soya bean, peas, lupins, grain germs, yeast and numerous other materials, produces particular advantages inthe handling and treat ment of textile fibres, threads and fabrics of all kinds. The treatment may ,be employed with textiles of all kinds, such as cotton, wool, artificial silk, silk and the like and may be embodied with advantage during any of the various stages in the production of the finished yarn or of the finished fabrics.

For example it has been found that the addition of lecithin during dyeing, either to the dye liquor or one or another. of the necessary baths, wetting out bath, mordant bath, etc., gives a greater brilliancy to the dyed material, a softer feel to the material and better dyeing through of hard threads and thick fabrics. Further the fibres are protected against the adverse influence of the liquor. It may be noted, that dye liquors and other liquors ordinarily used in conjunction therewith, all contain water as the largest constituent. A great resistance of the colored fabric to rubbing is obtained, with the dyed fibrous material simultaneously with a high gloss. These properties are also visible me. high degree in the materials produced therefrom.

Further, the addition of lecithin may also be made to the boiling materials which are alkaline aqueous liquids with which the raw cotton is boiled under pressure and the bucking is done in a dilute acid solution. It was observed that by this addition a better effect resulted in spite of a shortened period of steeping.

Also, it is possible to employ the lecithin in the cleaning and brightening of the fibrous material for which purposes it'is added to the cleaning or brightening baths, whether these are aqueous solutions, soaps, alkalies etc. or organic liquors, light gasoline, carbon tetrachloride etc,

In this manner the cleaning action is increased and the feel and appearance of the brightened material improved.

The lecithin suitable for this purpose can be obtained in known manner by extraction with suitable solvent materials, e. g. benzol-alcohol mixture, benzol-methyl-alcohol etc. from vegetable raw'materials such as for example soya beans, lupins, cereal germs and yeast. If necessary for the purpose for which it is intended, it can be purified and freed from excess of oil. For the present purpose, in particular, lecithins may be employed which are unsuitable for nutrient and medical purposes. Instead of lecithin, the phosphorus-containing residues of high emulsification capacity, such as those obtained as residues in the purification of phosphatides {for nutrient purposes can be used.

Thesephosphorus-contaimng residues are ob-- tained by the extraction of soy-bean oilwith organic solvents.

In the extracted oil, mucilaginous matters f. i. consisting of lecithin and impurities are suspended. This suspension'is removed from the oil by deposition after leaving the oil .to rest for a longer period or by centrifuging the oil. The obtained residues consist of about 30-70% of water, 30-70% of oil and 30-70% of phosphoruscontaining substances.

For the production of these suitable vegetable lecithins theprocedure may be that the husked soya beans are broken up by rolling and extracted with a mixture of 90 parts of benzol and 10 parts of alcohol at a temperature of to 30 C. The extracted material contains besides impurities, the extracted oil and the lecithin. After driving off the extracting agent from the solution by evaporation, the lecithin is separated from the oil by leading inwaste steam, it is separated from the main bulk of oil by centrifuging and is thereupon dried by heating under reduced air pressure, i. e. in a partial vacuum.

In this manner there may be obtained a vegetable lecithin which contains approximately 30 parts of oil and approximately '70 parts of lecithin, which swells in water, and is adaptedfor uniform distribution into the solutions which are used for the treatment of the fibres and of the materials p epared therefrom.

a suitable vegetable lecithin can also be obtained from soya beans by extracting soya beans at approximately 60 C. with benzene. The solution obtained in this manner is freed from the solvent by evaporation and treatment with steam. From the oily residue remaining, the vegetable leclthin containing 30-40% of oil, as well as impurities and water gradually settle out in the bottom. This mass is collected and dissolved in trichlorethylene and freed by filtration from the solid residues, separated from the water and the solvent further evaporated. If the purified vegetable lecithin so obtained, contains too large a quantity of oil, this latter may treatment with acetone or acetic ester.

This lecithin is used in the same manner as that produced as described earlier.

The following examples are given purely by way of illustration. The parts are by weight.

Example 1 To 1000 parts of an aqueous mordanting bath, such as stannous chloride solution, ferrous chloride solution etc. add about 2 to 4 parts of lecithin, and mordant the cotton in the usual or any approved manner, and dye in the usual manner.

Example 2 The same amounts of lecithin can be added to one or both of the hot solutions of tannic acid and tartar emetic used for mordanting cotton (white mordant) to be dyed with basic dyes.

Example 3 Example 4 To 1000 parts of a dye bath containing a direct dyestufl, e. g. Ciba-sky-blue F. F., pink 2 B, green G N concentrated, Red 3 B or other direct dye for cotton, or a mixture of these, the dye being about 1 to 3% of the weight of the cotton, is added about 0,5 to 3 parts of lecithin. The cotton previously wetted out, if desired, is introduced and dyed in the conventional manner.

Example 5 To 1000 lbs. of a dye bath for sulphur dyeing, containing say 48 lbs. of soda ash, 22 lbs. of actual NazS with or without turkey red oil, about 17 lbs., and 64 lbs. sulphur yellow G, or any other sulphur dye or mixture of them, there is added 0,5 to 5 lbs. of crude phosphatide Heavy cotton cloth to be dyed, say 2,54 sq. yds. of the cloth weighing a pound, is introduced and run through the bath continuously, at high speed, the bath being kept boiling hot or at the desired temperature the cloth being in the bath about 2 minutes. It then runs out, through Na=CrzO4 and acetic acid or other oxidizing solution, is washed, squeezed and dried.

The lecithin or other phosphatide can be added to other dye baths containing any kind of .iyestuil'.

' Example 6 Cotton fabric is put into a kier as usual. Causbe partly or wholly removed by Example 7 Cotton is bucked in 5 Tw. sodium hypochlorite solution, with enough H2804 or HCl to make the bath very feebly acid. The bucking solution may contain about 0,5 to 3% of lecithin.

Example 8 Cold bleach. The .cotton fabric is singed, then passed through (a) a solution of malt extract containing 3,5 gallons of diastatic malt extract in 40 gallons of water. Then it is let stand for 40-50 minutes. Then it is run through a 6-box open soaper. In the first two boxes (b and c) of thissoaper, is provided running water, the second one preferably hot water. The next four boxes (d, e, f, 9) contain boiling hot 10-11% NaOH solution. After the fabric comes out it is allowed to stand one-half hour. The material cools ofl during this time. Then it is taken through another 6-box open soaper, the first box (h) contains hot water, the second box (1) contains cold water. The next box (7') contains a solution of sodium hypochlorite, cold, at 4-5 Tw. The fourth (k) box contains 1101 of 2 Tw. The fifth box (1) contains cold wash water and the sixth box (m) contains hot water. It is then squeezed and dried on hot cans.

Example 9 Wetting out. The water used for wetting out cotton, wool, silk, artificial silk or other fabric or yarns, etc. may have 0,1-1% of lecithin added. This increases penetration, thus shortens the time needed for wetting out, gives more level dyeing and a softer feel.

Example 10 ferred to adding a given amount of lecithin to an aqueous bath, in which lecithin is of course well known to be insoluble, I may conveniently first emulsify the desired amount of lecithin with say 5 to 20 times its weight of water, soap solution, starch solution, mild soda solution, or other liquid which is to become a part of the final bath, and then homogenize such emulsion by e through a homogenizer, e. g. a colloid mill and acid such emulsion to the other constituents of the bath, the other constituents of the final bath having first been dissolved in the remaining portion of the water. The bath is, of course, well mixed. Or, if desired, I may make up the final bath, all except the lecithin, emulsify the lecithin with a small part of the said bath, and add the emulsion, after homogenization if desired, to the remainder of the bath, and mix well.

According to this invention a progressive and ash solution, having an .uu-

new technical eilect is obtained. The fabrics vention showa soft and favourable feel and show a higher brilliancy than the known products.

I claim:

1. In the treatment of cellulosic fibrous textile materials and of fabrics manufactured therefrom with treating liquors in which water constitutes the largest constituent the addition of vegetable lecithin to the said liquors and the treatment of said fibrous materials therewith.

2. A process for the treatment of fibrous textile material in which a chemical treatment of said material is effected with a heated alkaline liquid containing added vegetable lecithin.

3. A process for the treatment of fibrous textile material, and of fabrics manufactured therefrom, in which an addition of vegetable lecithin is made to a dye liquor, with which said textile material is treated.

4. In the treatment of celiuiosic textile materials, the herein described improvement which comprises subjecting the said textiles to treatment with a bath containing added vegetable phosphatides, the largest constituent of said bath being water.

' 5. Chemically treated textile material containing a small amount of vegetable phosphatide, the said phosphatide reducing the amount of injury to the textile materialduring the chemical treatment used.

6. Dyed textile material containing a small ingthe said textile materials brightening liquids containing a vegetable amount of vegetable phosphatide, the said phosphatide acting to prevent injury to the said textile materials during dyeing process and acting to cause the dye to penetrate thick hard threads and produce a complete dyeing through of the textile material.

"l. A process for the treatment of fibrous textile material, and of fabrics manufactured therefrom, in which during a dyeing process performed uponsaid textilean addition of vegetable lecithin to the dye liquor is made in such a proportion only as to give a dye bath in which the said textile material is dyed.

8. In the treatment of textile materials, the herein described improvement which comprises subjecting the said textiles to treatment with a hot bath containing added vegetable phosphatide and free from added materials which are easily fermentable.

9. In the treatmen with an aqueous bath, the herein described step of adding a vegetable phosphatide, as its sole added emulsifying agent, to said bath, the largest constituent of said bath being water.

10. In the treatment of textile materials, the herein described process which comprises treatwith cleaning and phosphatido.

BRUNO REWALD.

of fibrous textile materials 

